ANTHRAX Drummer Says Guitarist ROB CAGGIANO's Departure 'Seems A Bit Sketchy'

February 6, 2013

Bram Teitelman of Metal Insider recently conducted an interview with ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Metal Insider: I'm not going to dwell on this, but I'll start by addressing the elephant in the room, which is [guitarist] Rob's [Caggiano] departure. Did you know he was creatively unsatisfied with ANTHRAX, or did it come as a surprise to you?

Charlie: It was a bit of a surprise to me. I was bummed. He said that he wanted to pursue more producing options, and that was his reason for leaving. He had other reasons, so I guess it was something that he'd been thinking about for a while. He wanted to get back to producing and getting off the road. And you're probably going to tell me, "Well, you do know he joined another band [VOLBEAT], right?" That makes it a bit confusing. I know a lot of our fans were sad to see him go, but were like, "If you want to go produce, we understand that." But when you read that he went to go join another band, that makes it seem a bit sketchy.

Metal Insider: Let's talk about your covers EP. Wasn't it supposed to initially just be for a special edition of "Worship Music"?

Charlie: It was talked about as that. But we had some of these songs and we wanted to do something with them because we really liked the way they came out. We wanted to add a bit more, so we talked about doing three or four more songs. Joey [Belladonna, vocals] really liked "T. N. T.", so we did that. Then we did the RUSH, BOSTON and JOURNEY songs, which was another one Joey really liked as well. So we went back and recorded them and they came out really good.

Metal Insider: What are your thoughts on being nominated for a Grammy for a fourth time?

Charlie: To some, it may come as a "yeah, I got nominated for a Grammy, I really don't care," kind of thing. I actually really do care about the Grammys, because it's being recognized for your art. And it came as a total surprise to us, which was even better. We weren't sitting around waiting to be nominated, and it was a complete shock. The amount of hard work and emotion that went into making the record, I feel that being recognized for our art is amazing. I can't say what the other bands put into their records, but I know what we put into ours, and it took a while for a reason. I'm really excited about it, and I hope it goes our way.

Metal Insider: I know this is way premature, but are there any thoughts on a follow-up to "Worship Music"?

Charlie: Yeah, well, we talked about of course not waiting to long to do the next one. We're looking for some time this year to get in and start working on it.

Read the entire interview from Metal Insider.

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).